Don't get me wrong, redistribution is a good thing in Venezuela, but the reason I'm saying that he's riding on the oil boom is because little to no investment has occurred in Venezuelan industry-economy. Chavez has not diversified his economy. Which means his government will be very vulnerable if there is a steep decline in the price of oil.

As for Chavez's friends, the only real friends he has are Morales in Bolivia and Correa in Ecuador. Ortega, despite his socialist past, said he wanted to have strong ties in Washington. In Peru, Chavez's candidate lost for no other reason than the fact that he was Chavez's candidate, the Peruvians didn't appreciate the foreign interference on Chavez's part. And Mexico (one of the region's largest economies) just had an election where a center-right candidate won and Chavez's candidate lost.

As for Kirchener, Lula, Bachelet...who are the heads of Latin America's largest economies, they have kept Chavez at an arm-length. While they are all socialists, they are not populists, they don't make decisions just for the hell of it. Their economies are either recovering or growing because they have not undertook excessively populist policies. Brazil, Argentina, Chile have diverisifed their economies, they are not protectionist states, they are inserted in the global economy, THEY ARE SUCCEEDING IN PAYING DOWN THEIR DEBTS LEFT OVER FROM THE 1960s-1980s, and on top of that they have governments that value expanded welfare for the impoverished classes. Lula and Bachelet have largely left the capitalist finance engine in place in their countries, BUT they nevertheless are expanding social services to their constituents.

Brazil, Argentina, and Chile are all better models of development in Latin America because they are better oriented towards the long-term, versus Venezuela that is trying to ride the petroleum gravy train while it lasts.

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators

Important Notices: By participating on this discussion
board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules
page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the
opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent
the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.